STOCKTON - With funding stalled, San Joaquin County officials are looking at alternatives to expanding the county jail.

"We absolutely do need jail beds," said Sheriff Steve Moore at a recent town hall meeting Thursday at University of the Pacific, where he and other law enforcement officials addressed public safety concerns.

Four years ago the county officials were told the county would receive the money for a facility that would double jail capacity. There is money to build a 1,280-bed facility but construction has been stalled by a lack of funding to operate the facility.

Moore said he plans to present some options to county supervisors on moving forward with the project.

"We are looking for alternatives," he said. And they may include a downsized or modified version of the original plan or the possible creation of a day reporting center for inmates released under supervision.

Moore said he is not making his ideas public until his report goes to county supervisors. Supervisors are expected to hear the report before the end of the year.

Officials say the expansion is needed more now than ever because realignment law AB109 - the new law that transferred responsibility of certain low-level felony offenders from state prisons to county jails in a move to relieve prison overcrowding - has led to a population explosion at the county jail.

Assistant Sheriff John Huber said there are at least three options to expansion with a possible fourth, including abandoning the entire idea.

"We kind of need the board to decide (whether) we move forward with the project," Huber said.

The county is to receive $80 million from the state for construction, and it has set aside $25 million of its own money for the expansion.

From law enforcement's prospective, the expansion is critical.

Realignment has added about 400 more inmates who otherwise would have been in state prison, and since the law went into effect one year ago, the jail population surpasses capacity of 1,411 on any given day compared with 1,200 or less before realignment.

The jail only is staffed to handle 1,213 inmates, Moore said.

Because of the drastic rise, more inmates are serving their time through alternative measures, such as electronic monitoring or work programs.

The state parolees released to county probation under realignment also are flooding the jail on technical violations, creating a revolving door. Some have been booked 11 times since October, 2011.

"That's once a month and they've all been on technical violations," Huber said.

An increased number of inmates - including the parolees - also are released to meet an existing court order that caps the jail population.

"Today, we released 30 inmates," Moore said at the town hall meeting.

Authorities' said anecdotal evidence shows criminals are taking advantage of the limitations in the local corrections system.

Assistant District Attorney Edward Busuttil said prosecutors have noticed once prison is taken off the table "a lot less defendants are inclined to plead guilty."

And as a result, more cases are going to trial as a result.

Busuttil supports a plan to add jail beds.

Douglass Wilhoit, Greater Stockton Chamber of Commerce chief executive officer, said jail expansion has been talked about since he was a county supervisor in the late 1980s.

He expressed frustration over ongoing hurdles in realizing the project.

Wilhoit said voters rejected a local half-cent sales tax in 1989 that would have funded construction and jail operations through 2010.

Even though state lawmakers approved construction dollars for San Joaquin County in 2007, he said, "now that time has changed where there is no (operation) money."

"The jail is very important because we need to get the people off of the street," Wilhoit said. "If they're not going to state prison, there has to be a place for them to go."